Aurtos
Aurtos Aurtos is important and prevalent in altomine culture. He is thought to be the third altomine to ascend after Oria and Ctenubem. According to altomine religion, he is the ruler of Vencaeli. However, Aurtos rarely does much ruling. In animal form, Aurtos appears as a giant eagle with lustrous, golden feathers. In human form, he is a tall, broad-shouldered man with bronze skin, gold eyes, and hair the color of his eagle feathers. Aurtos is the god of war and modesty (a strange combination) and the Guardian of Vencaeli. He has accrued some other spheres over the years, but in general Aurtos tends to be forgiving in stories. He defends his sphere but rarely takes others. In the past, Aurtos took a more active role in government. However, he seems to have grown bored of it in the past thousand years. Much of the time, his location''' is unknown. He may be spending time as an eagle, or as altomine’s prefer to believe, he is in Imas dealing with underworld affairs. Aurtos’s place as a god of war is obvious. He was said to be a great altomine general who died defending his people during the Sundering War. He was so great that, with the help of Oria, he returned as a golden eagle to further protect his people. Aurtos gained the sphere of modesty later. It is thought that he won it in a duel in order to keep Altomine’s from growing too arrogant (if this is true it didn’t seem to work). As a result, Aurtos is now thought to purposefully tell lies of humbleness meant to give Altomine’s perspective. The exact lies he tells are unclear from the records. It can sometimes be difficult to separate the man from the myth. However, one would think that Aurtos knew the truth of Imas as a land of living. Perhaps his “humble lies” were really just him trying to explain the truth. If this were the case, it would seem the Altomines had concocted a way to not listen to their oldest voice of wisdom. '''This theory explains some other trends in Aurtos’s actions. For instance, why did Aurtos gradually become less and less involved in his people? Maybe because he grew tired of their thick-headedness. Also, he used to procreate with his people perhaps once every generation. Yet a new eagle-blood hasn’t been heard of for a few hundred years in Vencaeli. Where is the eagle now? Perhaps he simply left Vencaeli altogether to seek greener pastures. From other races’ accounts, generally accounted to their guardians, Aurtos is said to be charismatic and kind, but brash and arrogant. Without the ability to meet him first hand, it’s hard to know which account is correct. If it is true, however, it is rather telling that a Guardian who is considered arrogant by most is instead a god of modesty among the altomines. For more information on Aurtos, I recommend the recent account “Aurtos Through the Ages and the Deterioration of Vencaeli,” by Perinax Acacius. It includes various stories of Aurtos’s adventures from the knowledgeable but critical eye of a disillusioned altomine. Category:Gods Category:Altomines Category:Great Eagle